Concentrating vanadium ores by attrition followed by froth flotation



Patented Mar. 15, 1949 CONCENTRATING VANADIUM ORES BY AT- TRITIONFOLLOWED BY FROTH FLOTA- TION Arthur J. Weinig, Golden, (1010., assignorto Vanadium Corporation of America, New York, N. Y., a corporation ofDelaware No Drawing. Application July 14, 1945,

Serial No. 605,200

Claims. (Cl. 24114) 1 This invention relates to a method ofconcentrating ores and more particularly to a method of concentratingvanadium ores which may or may not contain uranium and radium, in orderto produce a vanadium concentrate for final recovery of the metals by aroasting process.

The ores are of the nature of sandstones containing chloritic mineralsin which vanadium minerals are associated as inclusions. The most commonchloritic mineral in vanadium ores is glauconite. With the glauconite orchloritic minerals other vanadium minerals may be a present such ascarnotite or roscoelite.

Among the objects of the invention are:

1. To recover slime like minerals containing vanadium and associatedmetals;

2. To remove by the application of the flotation process undesirablelime bearing minerals such as calcite;

3. To remove and reject as a waste product siliceous and quartz mineralsby froth flotation;

4. To recover vanadium minerals included in chloritic minerals as anonfloating residue from the above flotation operation;

5. To improve the effectiveness of concentration and metal recovery andto make possible commercialization of leaner or hitherto commerciallyunworkable ores (simultaneously decreasing the cost of recovered values)by decreasing the tonnage of ore hauled to and treated by the subsequentroasting process for final recovery of the metals.

In carrying out the present invention on a vanadium ore containingquartz, calcite and chloritic minerals, the ore is crushed and ground,the grinding preferably being to an extent so as to grind the ore downto approximately the original quartz grain size. This grinding releasesa very substantial amount of the metals (vanadium and uranium andassociated radium) in and with the colloidal clay minerals of the v ore.Organic complexes are also released. The

ground ore then is preferably deslimed in water and the slime recoveredbut this desliming may be omitted in certain cases. The residual sandsfrom the desliming operation are given a wet scrubbing by agitating themwith water in any suitable machine,. as for example, a flotationmachine. In the event that the desliming step just mentioned is omitted,the ground ore is subjected to the wet scrubbing operation. In eithercase, in carrying out this wet scrubbing operation the scrubbing iscontinued only until the quartz grains are reasonably freed of adheringminerals but the calcite and chloritic mineral grains re- 2 mainrelatively intact. This wet scrubbing results in an almost totaland-complete release of the colloidal complexes and the metals. The oreis then deslimed and the "slime containing a considerable portion of themetal values is recovered.

The deslimed sands are then subjected to. froth flotation in which thecalcite is flrst recovered as a froth concentrate by using a fattymaterial as a flotation reagent. Suitable fatty acid flotation reagentsfor recovering calcite are sodium oleate, naphthenic acid or linoleicacid or the salts of these acids, tall oil or its alkali or ammoniumcombinations. This flotation yields a calcite product in which some ofthe metals concentrate and which may be separately rescrubbed orrecleaned to recover additional metals before rejecting as a wasteproduct.

After the flotation and removal of the calcite. the cleaned quartz maybe floated as a reject froth product by the use of lead salts. Generallythere is suflicient of the fatty acid reagents remaining from thecalcite product to give good promotion of the quartz with lead salts.However, additional fatty acid reagents may be added if necessary.Suitable lead salts are lead nitrate, lead chloride or lead acetate.Other water soluble lead salts may also be employed. I Ordinarily thequartz flotation product is a low grade waste product but additionalcleaning, scrubbing and desliming may be used if necessary or profitablebefore rejecting it.

The nonfloating residue of the quartz flotation is a concentrate ofchloritic minerals containing suilicient included metals to beacceptable as a metal concentratesuitable for roasting.

The following are examples which illustrate my invention:

Exmru: I

Stock pile ore composed of various commercial ores from seven differentareas in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona was used. The ore wasground to pass a 65 mesh screen and deslimed in water. The slimerecovered is designated 8-1. in Tables I and 11. After desliming, theresidual sands were agitated in a flotation machine at an approximatedilution of one part sand to one part water for 45 minutes. After thisscrubbing agitation the pulp was diluted with water and again deslimed.This second slime is designated 8-2 in the tables. 7

The residual sands from the second desliming was returned to theflotation machine, diluted to a consistency of four parts water to onepart sands and subjected to froth flotation using as reagents 3 0.30lbs. naphthenic acid and.2.35 lbs. sodium oleateper ton of original headore. There was removed, as a froth product, acalcite reject materialdesignated F-l.

Following the calcite flotation, crude lead nitrate equivalent to 1.0lbs. per ton original head ore was added to the flotation pulp and theflotation continued. There was removed a rougher froth product which wasrecleaned by flotation yielding a reject quartz product designated F-2and a cleaner tailing marked CT to be later returned to the process. Theresidue or nonfloating product remaining from the above rougher quartzfroth is a chloritic mineral product designated T.

The metallurgical distributions of the products with analyses of thisexample were as follows:

The percentage distributions in the products were as follows:

Table II Percent Weight Percent V105 Percent :20 0;

Product Re- 53%: Reg z Rewiped ered jected cred jected cred S-l 9. 4328. 37 16. 65 5-2 14. 52 57. 36 20. 90 F-l 4. 01 1. 55. 10 F-2 69. 59 9.22 6. 77 T. 1.18 2. 63 0. 30 CT 1 32 66 .11 CT .95 0.66 .11

Totals. 74. 55 25. 45 10. 9B 89. 02 62. 04 37. 96

1 Since CT is a return-to-process-product, it is assumed that one halfof the V205 and 0e00, and three fourths the weight will be finally lostor relected. The balance will be recovered.

The final over-all separation was:

Ratio of concentrate 3.9. Ratio CaCO; to V 05 in concentrate 1.18. RatioCaCO; to V 05 in head ore 2.76.

EXAMPLE II A low grade ore considered noncommercial in the present stateof the art, and containing higher calcite content to a degree whichwould render the roasting process highly difficult and costly, wastreated identically in all respects as in Example 1.

This yielded a final over-all separation as follows:

Ratio 01100; to V10. in concentrate 0.92. Ratio 0800s to V205 in headore 5.07.

It is thus very significant that low grade, high calcite noncommercialores which exist in great tonnages may be treated by the process of thisinvention yielding a satisfactory concentrate low in calcite and quitesuitable for final recovery of the metals by the roasting process.

It will be understood that the process as described in connection withExamples I and II is for concentrating ores containing objectionableamounts of both quartz and calcite, and accordingly in that process bothquartz and calcite are separated from the chloritic minerals. In someores where the calcite content is low in amount the calcite flotationstep may be omitted. Furthermore as previously indicated the deslimingstep of Example I following grinding of the ore and preceding wetscrubbing of the ore may be omitted.

The invention is not limited to the preferred procedure but may beotherwise embodied or practiced within the scope of the followingclaims.

I claim:

1. In a method of concentrating vanadiumbearing sandstone orescontaining more siliceous material than V205, the. steps comprising wetscrubbing the ground ore until the quartz grains are reasonably free ofadhering minerals but the chloritic mineral grains remain relativelyintact,

, desliming and recovering the slime, subjecting the residual sandstofroth flotation, employing a lead salt and a member of the groupconsisting of higher fatty acids, naphthenic acid and soaps derived fromsuch acids and recovering quartz as a flotation product.

2. In a method of concentrating vanadiumbearing sandstone orescontaining more siliceous material than V205, the steps comprising wetscrubbing the ground ore until the quartz grains are reasonably free ofadhering minerals but the chloritic mineral grains remain relativelyintact, desliming and recovering the slime, subjecting the residualsands to froth flotation with a lead salt and a member of the groupconsisting of higher fatty acids, naphthenic acid and soaps derived fromsuch acids, removing quartz as a flotation product. and recovering thenon-floating residue of the quartz flotation.

3. In a method of concentrating vanadiumbearing sandstone orescontaining more siliceous material than V205, the steps comprising wetscrubbing the ground ore until the quartz grains are reasonably free ofadhering minerals but the calcite and chloritic mineral grains remainrelatively intact, desliming and recovering the slime, subjecting theresidual sands from said desliming to froth flotation, employing amember of the group consisting of higher fatty acids, naphthenic acidand soaps derived from such acids,-'remov- 5 ing calcite as a frothproduct in such amount that the non-floating residue has a ratioCaCOsiVzOs not over 3, adding a lead salt to the flotation pulp andremoving quartz as a flotation product, and recovering the non-floatingresidue of the quartz flotation.

4. In a method of concentrating vanadiumbearing sandstone orescontaining more siliceous material than V105, and having 7 a ratiocacoazviot of the order of at least 5, the steps comprising deslimingthe ground ore and recovering the slime, wet scrubbing the residualsands until the quartz grains are reasonably free of adhering mineralsbut the calcite and chloritic mineral grains remain relatively intact,desliming and recovering the slime, subjecting the residual sands fromsaid second desliming to froth flotation', employing a member of thegroup consisting of higher fatty acids, naphthenic acid and soapsderived from such acids, removing calcite as a froth product in suchamount that the nonfloating residue has a ratio CaCO::VzOs not over 3,adding a lead salt to the flotation pulp and removing quartz as aflotation product; and recovering the non-floating residue of the quartzflotation.

5. In a method of concentrating vanadiumbearing sandstone orescontaining more siliceousmaterial than V205, and having a ratioCaCO::V:Os of the order of at least 5, the steps comprising wetscrubbing the ground ore until the quartz grains are reasonably free ofadhering minerals but the calcite and chloritic mineral grains remainrelatively intact, desliming and recovering the slime, subjecting theresidual sands from said desliming to froth flotation, employing amember of the group consisting of higher fatty acids, naphthenic acidand soaps derived from such acids, removing calcite as a froth productin such amount that the non-floating residue has a ratio CaCOatVsOs notover 3, adding a lead salt and a member of said group to the flotationpulp and removing quartz as a flotation product, said flotation productcontaining not over 0.30% V205 and recovering the non-floating residueof the quartz flotation.

ARTHUR J. WEINIG.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the flle ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,136,726 Osborne Nov. 15, 19382,222,331 Weinig Nov. 19, 1940 2,222,332 Weinig Nov. 19, 1940 ClemmerAug. 28, 1945 I

